


Phoenix

by Claire, goddessofcruelty



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Romance Novel, Firefighter Peter, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Nurse Chris
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-11
Updated: 2015-02-03
Packaged: 2018-02-16 22:46:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2287202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Claire/pseuds/Claire, https://archiveofourown.org/users/goddessofcruelty/pseuds/goddessofcruelty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The door opens and Peter smiles at the girl who opens it, or at least gives his best effort.  Her brown eyes sparkle with warmth as she bids him come in, introduces herself as Allison, and then calls for her dad.  ”Your patient is here!”</p><p>"I’m sorry, I lost track of-"  The man’s voice cuts off as he rounds the corner and sees the firefighter, and at first Peter thinks it’s his scars, but then his blue, blue eyes open wide and his voice cracks as he speaks. </p><p>“Peter?!”</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Romance blooms between a single parent and an injured firefighter who is renting a room in his home while he recovers.

Peter limps up to the door, double-checking the address.  He’s back home in Beacon Hills after being seriously injured in the fire that took half his Ladder’s lives in New York. He had to get away from the City that wrecked his life. So then, here where his family died, the reason he became a firefighter in the first place.   _Yeah, that’s a better choice_ , he scolds himself before knocking on the door.

He can’t be alone yet, Peter needs someone to change the bandages on his back and apply the ointment to his burn scars.  Friends of friends had found a local nurse with a room to rent, and so here he is, about to meet his nurse and landlord.  He can admit he’s apprehensive about his welcome.  It’s one thing to approve of the  _idea_  of him living here, it’s another to see the proof of the fire that injured him staring you right in the face.

The door opens and Peter smiles at the girl who opens it, or at least gives his best effort.  Her brown eyes sparkle with warmth as she bids him come in, introduces herself as Allison, and then calls for her dad.  ”Your patient is here!”

"I’m sorry, I lost track of-"  The man’s voice cuts off as he rounds the corner and sees the firefighter, and at first Peter thinks it’s his scars, but then his blue, blue eyes open wide and his voice cracks as he speaks. 

“ _Peter?!_ ”

It takes him a second, it’s been what seems like  _decades_  since he’s seen the other man last, and when it hits him, Peter can’t even believe the sucker punch the universe has thrown him. Again.

"Hello, Christopher."

-

It’s been a long time since Chris last saw Peter Hale, since Peter told Chris he loved him, but that he couldn’t stay in Beacon Hills.

Chris hadn’t been surprised, Peter had lost everything in the fire. He’d been barely twenty-one and his world had crumbled in a heap of smoke and ash. And Chris knows that Peter feels guilty for not being able to look after Laura, Derek and Cora. Never mind that he was only young, that the state of mind he was in meant he was no place to care for himself, never mind three children.

Chris knows Peter had tried. Knows that he’d watched Laura and Derek get adopted by the Stilinskis, watched Cora get adopted by the McCalls. And he knows that Peter had felt each one as a personal failure to keep the last of his family together.

So Chris hadn’t been surprised when Peter had told him he was leaving. Hadn’t even been surprised when he’d asked Chris to go with him. But Chris’ dad had just been diagnosed back then, and they knew the outlook wasn’t good. Chris couldn’t leave his mom, leave Katie, not like that. So he’d told Peter he couldn’t go with him.

And then a few days later, he’d kissed Peter and watched as a bus had taken him out of Chris’ life.

-

The silence stretches on forever and Peter watches the emotions flit across Chris’ face, waits for the inevitable moment of distancing, when Chris’ memory of the pretty boy he used to be clashes with the scarred, broken man he is now. And then Peter decides that he really can’t stand to see that, not from Chris.

So he pushes up from the chair he’d sat down hard in, and Peter’s voice is rough with repressed emotion as he addresses the nurse. “Obviously, this was a mistake. I will find someplace else.”  He won’t, there  _wasn’t_  any place else, but Peter’s not thinking about the fact that he has nowhere else to go now, he just needs to get  _out_.

Allison comes back into the room, all smiles with a plate of chocolate chip cookies, and Peter’s nose twitches at the smell, another round of memories suffusing him. Talia making his favorite cookies for him, sharing them with Derek, and he resists the urge to dash the plate from her hands, to grind the cookies under his feet as he ruthlessly shoves the memories away.

Instead he turns away from the soft brown eyes, takes one last look at Chris’ shocked blue ones, and limps towards the door.

It takes Allison’s confused “Dad?” to get Chris moving, to get him reaching Peter before Peter can get to the door.

"Peter—" Chris reaches out, pulling his hand back at the last moment. Because he’s read the basic file he got, read about the burns over the top part of Peter’s body, and grabbing a burn victim, grabbing  _Peter_ , is the last thing Chris needs to be doing right now.

Peter’s still, and it take long moments before he turns to face Chris. And part of Chris just  _stops_ , because he never thought he’d see Peter after that day, when he stood and watched the bus drive away until he couldn’t see it any more. And with each second that had passed, he’d wanted to get in his car and drive after it. Wanted to meet it at the next stop, to tell Peter to grab his bag and get in the car. That they’d go somewhere, anywhere. That it didn’t matter so long as it was the two of them together.

And then he’d put his hand in his pocket, tightened his fingers around the prescription he needed to pick up for his dad, and the crumpled bills his mom had given him to pay for the tablets.

So he’d said goodbye to the most perfect thing in his life, and gotten back in his car. And it’s not like he can regret staying in Beacon Hills. Staying had brought him Victoria, had brought him Allison. And now it’s brought Peter back to him, standing in front of Chris and looking like he’s two seconds away from bolting.

"Stay." The word is out before Chris can stop it.

Peter’s eyes narrow slightly, and it makes Chris want to laugh, makes him want to tease Peter about how he obviously never got over that suspicious streak.

"It’s here or the motel on the other side of town," Chris points out, doubting if Peter will have anywhere else lined up to go, especially not somewhere equipped to deal with his injuries. "And," he adds, "their beds are probably still just as uncomfortable as they used to be."

Back when they two of them would rent a room out, when they needed to escape their families and just be together. Back when Peter pressed his lips against Chris’ and it felt like the world outside just stopped.

There’s a beat of silence, and Chris thinks that Peter’s going to leave, going to pick up his bag and be gone from Chris’ life a second time.

Then Peter nods, and Chris lets out the breath he didn’t even realise he was holding.

"I’ll show you to your room."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If this seems familiar to you, it's because it's been previously posted in the [Gifts collection](http://archiveofourown.org/works/2519057/chapters/5596997) the Petopher fandom did for [Claire](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Claire/profile). I just wanted to bring them together.

Peter doesn't know what he expected for his first morning with Chris, but a curtain opening before the sun has fully come up, and a cheerful Christopher practically singing, “Up and at 'em” wasn't even close to it.

Peter opens one eye and tugs the covers over his face.

“I'm injured, Christopher Argent, I'm allowed to sleep in.”

“Nope,” Chris rumbles, popping the 'p', “We've got work to do!”

He gives Peter thirty seconds and when the former firefighter doesn't respond, Chris tugs the covers down, halting and swallowing hard when he sees the bare chest beneath it. Peter sees the reaction and turns his face away so he doesn't have to see the pity at his scars. It's not pity in Chris' eyes, but her reminds himself that he's a professional, and Peter is a patient, and whatever has passed between them is in the past.

“Bandages,” he says, managing to pull on his professional cheeriness. “On your stomach, Hale.”

Peter grumbles but does at the nurse requests, and Chris lets himself get an eyeful of Peter in nothing but a pair of boxer shorts, and yeah the younger man might have burn scars, but it doesn't detract from his physique at all.

The nurse stores the image away for later and busies himself changing the bandages and then gently rubbing lotion into his burn scars. When he's done, Chris leans back and tosses the medical gloves, steps to the side and reviews the notes from Peter's doctor, but he notices out of the corner of his eyes the way that Peter covers himself carefully, and allows himself a small bloom of satisfaction that he's had an effect on the firefighter.

Chris doles out the doses of Peter's medications, and then steps to the side while Peter's drinking the cup of water, and starts laying out some clothing for him.

“Christopher?” Peter queries, and the older man turns with a tilt of his head.

“I thought we'd relax around the house today and save the tour until next week. Do you need help getting dressed?”

Chris steps forward with the sweatpants and t-shirt, and he knows he's not imagining the way Peter' pupils contract, but the younger man looks down at his mottled skin and shakes his head. “No thank you, Christopher.”

With a brusque nod that hides his disappointment, Chris slides through the door after telling him that he would be back in fifteen minutes.

Peter looks at the leg that didn't heal right, up to the closet mirror that shows him a disfigured face, and a useless waste of space. He knows he's just imagining the interest in Chris' eyes, he's just being friendly and cheerful, because that's his job, Peter Hale.

Peter struggles into the clothing and breathes a grateful sigh for the softness of it, only then noticing that he's not wearing his own clothing. Chris must keep these sorts of things lying around for patients.

Peter sets his jaw and forces himself to his feet, grabs the cane and stubbornly makes his way down the stairs, collapsing into a kitchen chair, gasping for breath while he's alone.

“Mr. Hale are you okay?” Allison's soft brown eyes are wide with concern as she steps from the pantry.

Peter resists the colorful language that threatens to spill from his lips and forces the mockery of a smile that's all he's got left. “Bit out of breath, sorry for startling you. I'm not quite back in shape yet.”

“Well,” she says after a beat of silence, “I'm sure you'll get there. Can I get you some breakfast?”

“Just coffee, thanks,” Peter nods.

“He'll have a veggie omelette with eggbeaters and a glass of juice with his coffee.”

Peter turns to arch a brow at the man standing in the doorway. “I don't recall signing up to have you bully me,” he grumbles.

Chris flashes a genuine smile. “You didn't read the fine print then. For the next six weeks, Peter Hale, I _am_ the boss of you.”


End file.
